Excitement for going to Australia, but boredom in Britain

In the mood and excited to be seeing Faith No More again, I had some creative fun...


This was a joke poking some fun at the apparent ridiculous demands on Faith No More's 2009 European tour rider, which was supposed to be a joke (well, it was ten pages long and you should've seen some of the items listed!. They asked for "towels that must be soft, like a baby bunny on a Summer's day".

Didn't get much work this week, which sucked, considering I really needed to earn as much as I could to pay off bills and for my trip to Australia, but that always seems to be the bad luck I get. Typical sod's law! The fustration and general boredom lead me to being creative again, making more jewellery designs to sell online in my stores and just having fun with my Sharpie permanent markers.
Faith No More, one of my favourite bands who I'm excited to be seeing again in Australia, unveiled the tour posters for the Australia and New Zealand shows last week. They've always had great designs on their posters, past and present and a lot of them are collectables now. Of course, I've often had people ask me whether I've designed posters for bands and album cover art and it's often crossed my mind that it is something I would have dabbled in, but never got around to it. I drew one fun poster, my own version of a poster advertising Faith No More's forthcoming San Francisco dates. The idea was for fun, but I think it would look great if it was re-drawn in a more edgy way with the same idea. The Golden Gate had to be in there, though, as Faith No More are from San Francisco anyway.

The Saint logo was something I though up last night randomly and the skull with wings pendant was originally one of my tattoo art necklace designs, just with the band name added in the scroll.

The Saint and The Sinner. Halo fallen onto Faith No More logo
Sketched with Sharpies and you can still see the pen marks all over the place, but what the hell!

More updates on here soon

Lack of updates on here obviously means I've been busy with my "day jobs", that is designing and making more jewellery and accessories and being a massage therapist, which I don't talk about too much due to most of my clients being in the music and entertainment industry.

Toxic Glamour is going strong thanks to all of you who I've met at festivals and headline concerts and handed out my flyers to. I haven't placed my usual ad in Kerrang lately, due to saving expenses and finding that advertising to fans direct while they're waiting in line outside venues before shows is by far the best way of promoting a business like mine.

I am now stocking Toxic Glamour jewellery here:

HELLWEAR CLOTHING
18b STABLES MARKET
CHALK FARM ROAD
CAMDEN TOWN
LONDON

You can order clothing and accessories directly from the Hellwear online store here:

www.hellwear.co.uk

My designs are not available via the Hellwear website, but you can buy them here:

US dollars: www.toxicglamour.etsy.com

UK pounds: http://uk.ebid.net/stores/toxicglamour

I will be off to Australia on February 18th to cover the annual Soundwave festival in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. After having been based in Sydney for almost a year, I haven't been back since 2006 and miss it a lot. I am very excited about seeing all my friends again and seeing so many amazing bands. To add the excitement, Faith No More have added another sideshow on February 24th in Melbourne, but I am already committed to seeing Jane's Addiction that night. Faith No More the day after, though! Paramore will be performing at the Festival Hall in Melbourne on February 23rd, I will be outside giving out Toxic Glamour info cards to everyone in line outside before the show and some free photos of Paramore to the first twenty people in line, so see you all there!

Billy Talent with support from Cancer Bats in Southampton

Thursday October 29th I headed for Southampton Guildhall to see a double dose of proper Canadian rock from Toronto based bands Cancer Bats and headliners Billy Talent.
Although hardcore punk rockers Cancer Bats were their usual energetic selves, frontman Liam Cormier still madly head banging around in between vocals and leaping around the stage at every opportunity, they weren't as great as they were when I saw them live on the Lock-Up stage at the 2008 Reading festival, a fantastic performance which a lot of people who saw it said it one of the best sets of the whole weekend. 2008 album release Hail Destroyer saw Cancer Bats gain more popularity in Europe and becoming the hardcore music media darlings of Kerrang and Rock Sound magazines, receiving rave reviews of live shows and records. However, despite a slightly disappointing support this evening, they still show a lot of promise for 2010's new Cancer Bats record, titled Bears, Mayors, Scraps and Bones. A couple of new songs from the new album went down well with the crowd, but it was rather obvious that more than half the audience were just letting time pass in time for their fellow Ontario buddies Billy Talent. The two bands have actually been close friends for many years now, having known each other from the Toronto music scene.
A sold-out Southampton Guildhall, as well as all the other UK tour dates, just goes to show how far the Canadian rock quartet have come, now gaining a big fan base in Europe following festival appearances and an Australian tour. In their native country, Billy Talent are used to selling out venues the size of the 02 and Wembley Arenas, so these venues are small and more intimate for them. Having formed in Toronto in 1993 and first known as Pezz, they became Billy Talent ten years ago in 1999. Most of the songs performed were from this Summer's release Billy Talent 3, opening the show with the 4th track from that album Dead Can't Testify. I enjoyed this gig more than expected as it had been a while since I last saw Billy Talent. They were on the Lock-Up stage at Reading at the same time as Faith No More were performing on the NME stage, so I was determined to make the most of watching this show in Southampton.
Frontman Ben Kowalewicz explains to the crowd that Southampton means something sentimental to him, as his mother first boarded a ship to Canada from the Southampton harbour. He talks and jokes around with the audience at every opportunity, blasted out popular songs from Billy Talent 3, such as Devil on my Shouler, Rusted from the Rain and Saint Veronika. Slower and more melodic track Surrender from 2006 release Billy Talent 2 gets an even bigger applause. My only disappointment of the night was Ben not taking his shirt off as he's often known for doing during shows, but what the hell! Later after the show was over, I got to chat with Ben, bassist Jonathan Gallant and guitarist Ian D'Sa who all praised the British audiences and said that the tour was going very well, despite having to prospone the first two dates due to illness. Poor drummer Aaron Solowoniuk was apparently feeling feverish and had a cold in Southampton, but his illness didn't effect his live drumming skills. I will definitely be seeing Billy Talent again before too long.
Me with Ben Kowalewicz and Ian D'Sa after the show in Southampton, October 29th.
Ben signing autographs for fans after the show.











Lots more photos of Cancer Bats and Billy Talent can be seen at:

www.rockmidgets.com

and on my MySpace photography page as usual.

New online store set up so fans can buy prints of my photos

Sorry for the lack of updates, but I've been so busy working.

Fans have asked me whether they can buy prints of my best band photos, so I've set up a new online store for glossy prints of my favourite band photos here:

http://uk.ebid.net/stores/rockshots

Next show I will be photographing will be Billy Talent and Cancer Bats at Southampton Guildhall at the end of October. I am trying to save money for February, when I will be returning to Australia for the first time since 2006 for the Soundwave festival and Faith No More separate headline shows (they are also on the line-up for Soundwave).

My live photos and a review of The Used's brilliant performance at the Electric Ballroom in Camden can be viewed here:

www.rockmidgets.com

My 18th year in a row at the Reading festival

Yet another Reading festival is over and it marks the end of the Summer for me and most music fans in the UK. This year was my 18th year at the festival and apart from the miserable (and unusually cold) weather on Friday and Sunday, it was as great as always. My highlights from Friday August 28th were watching Faith No More, who were even better than they were at Download a few months ago, Placebo, Alexisonfire, Fall Out Boy and The Deftones. I was annoyed that three great bands I wanted to watch were all on different stages at the same time, whose dumb idea was it to put Billy Talent on the Lock Up stage at the same time as Faith No More on the NME stage...?! So not fair! I obviously watched Faith No More, because Billy Talent are coming back for a UK tour soon anyway.
I managed to get some photos. Lots more are on the MySpace page in the Reading Festival 2009 gallery. The Prodigy and The Blackout were the best on Saturday. God knows why Arctic Monkeys were headlining the main stage after The Prodigy, as I only recognized around two songs they played when I saw their performance on TV in the bar at the hotel I was staying in. Sunday was dull up until The Gaslight Anthem were on the NME stage, followed by Gallows, AFI and Lostprophets. I suppose I did an okay job on getting photos of the bands I saw considering I didn't have a photo pass.
A couple of face-painted festival goers. The neon face paint was seen around the site a lot, like last year.

Batman and The Joker!
Guy in a "nude" bodystocking!
Ian Watkins from Lostprophets
AFI, NME stage Sunday August 30th, 2009.
More AFI
Brian Fallon from The Gaslight Anthem
Thursday vocalist Geoffrey Rickly
Matt Caughthran from The Bronx
Mike Patton from Faith No More
More Faith No More
Dallas Green from Alexisonfire in the NME signing tent indicating to fans making too much noise!
The Gossip's Beth Ditto in the NME signing tent
You Me At Six
Ian Brown
Enter Shikari
More of Mike Patton
Brian Molko of Placebo on the main stage, Friday August 28th.
Pete Wentz
Fall Out Boy
The Deftones on the main stage (with Dallas Green from Alexisonfire watching at the side!)
Jordan Pundik from New Found Glory on the main stage

The Deftones and AFI in Amsterdam

I've had a busy past week, travelling to Amsterdam to see The Deftones and AFI at own small venue shows before their Reading and Leeds festival appearances. I didn't manage to get any live shots of The Deftones at The Paradiso, as I was late arriving from having dinner with my cousin who lives in Amsterdam, but I got a photo pass for the AFI show at The Melkweg.
It had been two years since I'd seen AFI live and at least four years since I'd seen The Deftones live and without bass player Chi Cheng who is still in hospital receiving treatment following a serious car accident in November 2008 which left him in a coma. Chi is now out of intensive care and according to the band, his condition has improved. Despite the worries, the band were on top form in Amsterdam with replacement bassist Sergio Vega. I managed to chat to the band outside the venue after the show and they were all in good spirits and look forward to playing Reading and Leeds.
All the shots I got of AFI will (hopefully) be featured on the official AFI fan club site Despair Faction and you must be a member of the Despair Faction to log onto the site, but I have uploaded a few photos on here and in my MySpace galleries.









Deftones lead vocalist Chino Moreno after the show at the Paradiso in Amsterdam on August 25th and pictured below, drummer Abe Cunningham.